New name!

I've got some news! From now on, I shall be trading as Fiona Purves (that's my name, in case you didn't notice..), and have waved goodbye to Paper Aeroplane. I am still going to be doing all of my cards & prints - everything will remain the same, just under a new name and with a new logo. I'm going to balance my time between illustration projects as well as cards & prints, more so than I have done in the past year and a half (since I started Paper Aeroplane back in June 2012). I'd also like to get people to know me for my own work, with a more personal approach to my projects & designs. Trading under my own name gives me the freedom to do this. So, I'll just be using my fionapurves.co.uk website from now on! I've also updated my shop and social media pages, but if you followed me on those before, you'll still be following me as I've just updated the names. Oh, and as you may have noticed, I've also changed the name of this blog!

Top Drawer + stuff

My my, it's been a bit of a crazy year over at Paper Aeroplane. I can't quite believe it's almost the end of September already! Blog posts seem to be happening quarterly at the moment... Anyway, I suppose this counts as another sort-of milestone for my little business. Last week I exhibited at my third trade show, Top Drawer. It was my first show in London, and I didn't really know what to expect at all, which usually makes for a pleasant surprise. And pleasantly surprised, I was! The show went very well indeed, with lots of orders and lots of interest from some beautiful shops all over the UK. I'm a bit overwhelmed by it all actually, but that's in no way a complaint!

My sleepy face

My handsome assistant Tim (and my better half)

In other news, I also gave the website a bit of an update just before Top Drawer. Tim helped me with all of the pictures, which look great if I do say so myself.... 

I'm also busy beavering away with Amy from Ziggy Sawdust, working on our new venture, Paper Sawdust. Watch this space for some news sooooooooooooon, I am away to pack some more cards...

We are One!

Well, this is a bit of a belated post since I've had a crazy busy couple of months! Paper Aeroplane officially turned One Year Old on 1st June, hurray! To celebrate (as mentioned previously) I collaborated with the lovely Amy from Ziggy Sawdust and put together a Pop-up Shop. It's been four weeks since the opening day already.... We had great fun and I loved collaborating with Amy; I think collaborating really helps you to think in a new way and it was great to embark on such a big project. Neither of us had done anything like this before so it was a huge learning curve, but we were so pleased with the results and even more pleased with all the lovely feedback we received.

The 'before' shot...

It took us nearly two 18-hour long days to get everything installed in the gallery space (with a bit of help from Queen, Blondie and Wham! on vinyl), and we opened with a party on Friday 24th May, with balloons, plenty of David Bowie, friends, family, party bags, prosecco in paper cups, and, of course, two great big Birthday Cakes from Lovecrumbs. Amy and I had nearly all of our meetings in their shop in Edinburgh, so it was only right that we had their cakes at our Birthday Party!

 

Photograph © Tim Courtney

Photograph © Tim Courtney

Photograph © Tim Courtney

Amy and I also worked on these two pieces especially for the Pop-up Shop - a 1950s gate-leg table and a headboard, painted in Ziggy's signature colours, and adorned with my own hand-lettering. It was great fun working together, and for me, on such large-scale pieces! We might even make some more things together...

We also had our wee promo video played, over the whole duration of the Pop-up Shop, on the gigantic TV screen on Lothian Road in central Edinburgh, which was very surreal to see! We managed to capture most of it with our cameras....

The Pop-up Shop was open for five days, the first day being the sunniest, warmest day of the year so far (I think!), which was just wonderful. It was so nice to see all of our work together in the space, and to showcase what we've created in our first year of business. The garage-style gallery space had big concertina doors along one wall, which we had open every day. We seemed to catch the attention of just about everyone walking by!

We both launched brand new arms of our businesses at the Pop-up too. Amy has started to make jewellery made from pieces of old chairs (how genius is that?!), which she displayed on the backs of more old chairs attached to the wall. I launched my own bespoke stationery service, offering tailor-made stationery for Weddings and extra-special events! Get in touch if you'd like to know more...

So, the Pop-up Shop was the perfect way to reflect on Paper Aeroplane's first year, and I'm really excited to begin the second. I've got loads of ideas in my head (and some on paper!).

You can see lots more photos of the Pop-up right here. Ziggy Aeroplane will also be appearing again in the very near future! Watch this space!

Photograph © Tim Courtney

Popping Up!

Hello! It's been a wee while since my last post because I've been busy beavering away on loads of brand new designs (that's one of them pictured above..), as well as a super exciting project for Paper Aeroplane's First Birthday, in the shape of a Pop-Up Shop! With three weeks to go until the opening, there's lots of work still to do but it's really exciting seeing everything coming together! I'm working in collaboration with Amy Dolan from Ziggy Sawdust, an Edinburgh-based retro furniture upcycling business! I contacted Amy after seeing her feature over on Future Positive, and thought our work would look wonderful together. Turns out we make excellent sort-of business partners too! I'm going to write a big blog-post all about her and work soon. Anyway. We've been super busy planning, organising, sign-painting and pinterest-ing and can't wait to see everything in the space we've got. If you're so inclined, you can 'like' our joint Facebook page, Ziggy Aeroplane, for all the latest updates and clues as to what we're planning for our displays! Oh, and I should probably mention the details - we're going to be having it at Whitespace, 11 Gayfield Square, Edinburgh, from the 25th to 29th May!

We've also launched our project over on Kickstarter - have a look here! We made a little video too with the help of my wonderful friends Jess and Nikki, and my fella Tim made the music especially for us. If you didn't know already, Kickstarter is a website which helps creative people launch creative projects... with the help and support from people who would like to see the idea succeed. If you've got a spare moment, have a wee read about what we'd like to achieve & watch our video, and if you can pledge a little something to help us reach our goal, not only will we be forever grateful, but we will also send you a pretty special reward to say thank-you! So it's a win, win!

Me and Amy during our video shoot

More on my new designs and my collaboration with Amy and other exciting stuff next week! 

Marching on...

Ooops, I managed to go a whole month without posting anything here! February was a funny month; because I've been starting loads of new work I spent most of my time researching and scribbling ideas and not really doing much that felt all that productive. Still, I really need time like that to think properly and for my brain process all my ideas and research, in order to come up with new work which is well-developed and considered. Anyway, I'm still sort of at this stage and I'm just doing a lot of random drawing and lettering.... I have lots of bits to pull together! I'm really excited about the things I have to add to my existing range to make it even bigger and better.

I'm also very excited about the onset of Spring! I wore shoes the other day instead of boots! And I've got my window wide open today, and the sun was pouring through onto my desk this morning. Glorious!

So far

Goodness, how is it nearly the end of January already?! I think I maybe said the same thing this time last year... Anyway it's been a pretty busy month and in all an alright start to the year. I went to London to take part in the Liberty Best of British Open Call which was quite a surreal but overall a positive experience. I also went for a look around Top Drawer to catch up with a few lovely folk I met when I did Harrogate Home & Gift last July. I also discovered Seeya, and fell in love with their wonderfully innovative and charming greetings cards. The following weekend I exhibited at Scotland's Trade Fair, above is a picture of my stand there. I had a good few days and met loads of independent retailers and secured a few more stockists. I'm now about to embark on a review of my existing ranges, and I'm going to be making lots of new work in the next few weeks so watch this space for brand new things! Oh, and Valentine's cards should be appearing in my etsy shop this week, finally...

Bits & Pieces

Pastel colours on my new Spring cards / new things up on my wall / a little Badger